Space

The X-37B, the Air Force’s top secret spacefaring drone, has come home. The Air Force announced today that the unmanned space system had landed safely at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Although it had been expected to land sometime this week, just when it would occur was a bit of a mystery — fitting, because the…

Like most Americans this weekend, I took the opportunity to go out into the sun and partake in that most American tradition of grilling and beer over a three-day weekend. Now, most of my friends are not part of the military-industrial complex where the readers of this blog often reside, and as such, they sometimes ask…

Deciphering the Pentagon’s 2015 spending proposal has been difficult, but Defense News has some charts the could serve as a decoder ring. Out friends at VisualDoD helped us compile data from the Defense Department’s spending plan to create these detailed graphics, which tell a story on their own. First, the chart at the top of…

I still remember my first phone call to the US Air Force’s Combined Air and Space Operations Center (CAOC) back in 2006. It’s not an easy place to reach. First you had to dial a lengthy international phone number then enter a separate 10-digit exchange. The quality of the call varied each time and there…

Friday blues got you down? We here at Intercepts have the answer. Below the fold is video of SpaceX’s experimental Grasshopper rocket hitting a new record height, 744 meters up into the sky. What differentiates this from most rocket launch video is the angle. SpaceX had a remote controlled camera hovering above the rocket, giving…

Monday blues got you down? Intercepts is here to start your week off on a good note. Below you’ll find video from Virgin Galactic, the space-based arm of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire. The company has been testing out its SpaceShipTwo, which will take civilian “space tourists” for a jaunt into space. During a recent test…

As part of President Obama’s FY 2014 budget, NASA will receive funding for a manned spacecraft to intercept an asteroid, redirect it, and then study it to find out more about the universe. It’s not quite Bruce Willis territory, but it’s still pretty ambitious. And yesterday NASA released a new “trailer” for the mission, detailing…

What did China really launch into space, and when did Obama administration officials know it? That’s what GOP House Armed Services Committee member Randy Forbes of Virginia wants to know. And he’s pressing President Obama’s hand-picked defense secretary for some answers. The early May Chinese “launch of a missile ‘nearly to geosynchronous orbit’ requires additional answers…

It’s that time again: National defense authorization act season. (Just loosen your tie and take a deep breath, nervous defense wonk, Intercepts is mildly confident your program is going to survive. Probably.) Following long-held custom, the House Armed Services Committee kicks things off this week with a series of subcommittee mark ups as the panel…

Space debris from a Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007 is becoming a problem. According to space.com, a piece of the Fengyun weather satellite, used by the Chinese military as a target, is causing havoc for commercial and military satellites as the debris begins to spread.